96 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



Notwithstanding the pains that have been taken by some 

 persons to destroy and exterminate these pernicious borers, 

 they continue to reappear in our orchards and nurseries every 

 season. The reasons of this are to be found in the habits of 

 the insects, and in individual carelessness. Many orchards 

 suffer deplorably from the want of proper attention ; the trees 

 are permitted to remain, year after year, without any pains 

 being taken to destroy the numerous and various insects that 

 infest them; old orchards, especially, are neglected, and not 

 only the rugged trunks of the trees, but even a forest of 

 unpruned suckers around them, are left to the undisturbed 

 possession and perpetual inheritance of the Saperda. On the 

 means that have been used to destroy this borer, a few remarks 

 only need to be made ; for it is evident that they can be fully 

 successful only when generally adopted. Killing it by a wire 

 thrust into the holes it has made, is one of the oldest, safest, 

 and most successful methods. Cutting out the grub, with a 

 knife or gouge, is the most common practice ; but it is feared 

 that these tools have sometimes been used without sufficient 

 caution. A third method, which has more than once been 

 suggested, consists in plugging the holes with soft wood. K 

 a little camphor be previously inserted, this practice promises 

 to be more effectual ; but experiments are wanting to confirm 

 its expediency. 



The coated Saperda, or Saperda vestita, described by Mi-. Say 

 in the Appendix to Keating's Narrative of Major Long's Expe- 

 dition, resembles the foregoing species in form. It measures 

 from six to eight tenths of an inch in length; it is entirely 

 covered with a close greenish yellow down or nap, and has two 

 or three small black dots near the middle of each wing-cover. 

 Mr. Say discovered it near the southern extremity of Lake 

 Michigan, and states that it is also sometimes found in Penn- 

 sylvania ; but he does not appear to have known anything of 

 its history. It is also found in Massachusetts, but has been 

 rarely seen, until within a few years. One of my specimens 

 was taken in Milton above twenty years ago, and several 

 others were taken in Cambridge, during the summers of 1843 



